Blue Beetle (2023) Review

The Gyver? What You Doing Here?

Let’s Start By Showing Y’all The Trailers Shall We?

Yeah, yeah, I know the whole batman is a fascist joke really caused a lot of controversy, so what? Its a joke. Also, yeah, I know.I’ve been holding off on this review. I don’t know why.

By the time Blue Beetle came out, the DCEU was already in one of the weirdest places any superhero universe could possibly be in. We all knew the old DC universe was basically ending. We knew James Gunn was coming in. We knew most of these characters probably were not going to matter going forward. And after movies like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and then later Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, it really felt like DC was limping toward the finish line instead of sprinting toward some grand finale.

So when Blue Beetle came out, I was not expecting much. I knew the character existed, but I was not walking into this with some deep lifelong attachment. I was not sitting there with a Blue Beetle shrine waiting for the greatest comic book adaptation ever made. I just wanted a decent superhero movie. That is it. That was the bar. Give me a likable main character, some fun action, a story that does not feel like it was edited inside a burning building, and maybe one or two emotional moments that actually land.

And somehow, this movie delivered.

Not perfectly. It has problems. It has familiar superhero origin movie beats. It has a villain who is not exactly groundbreaking. It has some goofy humor that does not always work. But compared to the other dying DCEU movies around it, Blue Beetle felt shockingly alive. It felt like a movie made by people who actually cared about the characters instead of just trying to dump one more superhero product onto the schedule before the reboot arrived.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

The movie follows Jaime Reyes, a recent college graduate who comes back home to find that his family is struggling financially and that his future is not as secure as he thought it would be. Through a series of events, Jaime ends up bonded to an alien scarab that chooses him as its host, giving him an advanced armored suit with powerful weapons, flight abilities, and a mind of its own. Suddenly, Jaime is thrown into the world of corporate greed, superhero chaos, and dangerous technology while trying to protect his family from people who want the scarab for themselves.

On paper, this is a pretty standard superhero origin story. Regular guy finds alien tech, gets powers, learns responsibility, fights a villain who wants the technology, and becomes a hero by the end. We have seen that structure plenty of times before. What makes Blue Beetle work is not that the plot reinvents the wheel. It does not. What makes it work is the family. Jaime is not some isolated hero hiding everything from everyone. His family is involved almost immediately, and that gives the movie a different energy from a lot of other superhero origin films.

Instead of the superhero secret creating distance between Jaime and his loved ones, the movie makes his family part of the story. They react to the scarab, they panic, they argue, they help, they get involved, and honestly, that is where the movie finds its personality.

Character Rundown

Xolo Maridueña is really good as Jaime Reyes. He brings a lot of likability to the role, and that matters because Jaime could have easily become just another generic young superhero lead. Instead, he feels like a normal guy who gets dropped into an impossible situation and has no idea what he is doing. He is awkward, scared, overwhelmed, and constantly trying to make sense of a suit that is basically turning him into a weapon against his will. That makes him easy to root for.

What I appreciated most is that Jaime does not immediately become cool the second he gets powers. A lot of superhero movies fall into that trap where the main character gets the suit and suddenly acts like they have been training their whole life. Jaime is not that. He is terrified. The scarab does things before he even understands what is happening. The suit reacts violently, creates weapons, launches him into the air, and Jaime spends half the movie screaming because his body has basically been hijacked by alien technology. That actually makes the origin fun.

The Reyes family is the heart of the movie. That is not an exaggeration. Without them, this movie would be a much more generic superhero story. Jaime’s parents, sister, grandmother, and especially Uncle Rudy give the film warmth and personality. They feel like an actual family. They argue, they tease each other, they panic together, they support each other, and they get dragged into Jaime’s superhero situation in a way that feels both funny and emotional.

George Lopez as Uncle Rudy is probably the biggest scene-stealer. He could have easily been annoying, and sometimes he comes close, but most of the time he works because the movie gives him enough heart underneath the conspiracy-theory uncle energy. He is loud, intense, suspicious of everything, and somehow exactly the kind of person you would want around when alien technology enters the family.

Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord is fine, and she helps connect Jaime to the larger Blue Beetle legacy. I liked her enough, though I would not say she is the strongest part of the movie. She works more as a bridge into the Kord Industries side of the plot.

Susan Sarandon plays Victoria Kord, and this is where the movie gets weaker. She is not terrible, but the villain is pretty generic. She is the evil corporate figure who wants the scarab for profit and military power. That works as a basic threat, but she never becomes especially memorable. Raoul Max Trujillo as Carapax is more interesting because the movie gives him a tragic backstory, but even that feels like it could have used more development.

Pacing / Episode Flow

The pacing works pretty well overall. The first act takes enough time to establish Jaime and his family before the scarab enters the picture, which is important because it gives the movie emotional grounding. Once Jaime bonds with the scarab, the movie picks up quickly and becomes more energetic. The first transformation sequence is one of the best parts of the movie because it captures the absolute terror of suddenly being trapped inside a high-tech alien weapon with no instruction manual.

The middle section is where the movie becomes more familiar. Jaime learns more about the scarab, Kord Industries becomes a bigger threat, the family gets pulled deeper into danger, and the movie starts following more standard superhero-origin beats. It does not completely lose momentum, but you can definitely feel the formula settling in. Thankfully, the family dynamic keeps the movie from becoming too generic.

The third act is big, loud, and very comic-booky, but it works better than many late-stage DCEU finales because the emotional stakes are personal. This is not about some giant portal in the sky or the entire multiverse collapsing. This is about Jaime trying to save his family and stop people from using the scarab as a weapon. The scale is smaller, and that helps.

Pros

The biggest pro is the family. That is what separates Blue Beetle from so many other superhero origin movies. The Reyes family gives the movie life, humor, and emotional weight. They are not just background characters waiting at home while Jaime goes off to be a hero. They are part of the adventure, and that makes the movie feel more personal.

Jaime himself is also a strong lead. Xolo Maridueña brings a lot of charm and vulnerability to the role, and I think he deserved more attention than the movie got at the box office. He feels like a hero you could build more stories around, which makes it frustrating that this movie came out during such a messy time for DC.

The suit is awesome. The Blue Beetle armor looks cool, the powers are fun, and the scarab itself gives the action scenes personality. I liked that the suit feels alive, almost like Jaime is in constant negotiation with it. That makes the action more entertaining because it is not just Jaime controlling a superhero suit. It is Jaime trying to survive the suit.

I also liked the cultural identity of the movie. It does not feel like a random superhero story where the character’s background is just decoration. Jaime’s family, community, and identity are built into the film. That gives the movie a specific flavor and helps it stand apart from the usual superhero origin formula.

Cons

The biggest issue is the villain. Victoria Kord is too generic to be truly compelling. Evil corporate villains can work, but this one feels like a stock character. She wants power, money, weapons, control, all the usual things. Susan Sarandon gives the role presence, but the writing does not give her enough depth.

Carapax is more interesting, especially once the movie reveals what was done to him, but that emotional reveal comes late and feels underdeveloped. There is a better version of the movie where Carapax is a much stronger mirror to Jaime, showing what happens when someone is used and turned into a weapon without the love and support Jaime has. The movie gestures toward that idea, but it does not explore it as deeply as it could.

Some of the humor is hit-or-miss. Most of the family comedy works, but a few jokes feel a little too broad. George Lopez is funny, but there are moments where the movie leans very hard on his energy. Thankfully, the character has enough heart to balance it out.

The movie also suffers from timing. This is not really the film’s fault, but it came out when general audiences had mostly checked out of the DCEU. That hurts because Blue Beetle is exactly the kind of superhero movie people claim they want: smaller, heartfelt, character-driven, not obsessed with cameos or multiverse nonsense. And yet it got released into a franchise graveyard. That is unfortunate because this movie deserved better.

Final Thoughts

Blue Beetle is not perfect, but I genuinely enjoyed it a lot. Compared to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, this movie felt like a breath of fresh air. It had heart. It had personality. It had a likable hero. It had a family dynamic that actually mattered. It remembered that superhero movies do not always need to be about saving the entire universe. Sometimes they just need to be about a person, their family, and the moment they decide to become something more.

What makes Blue Beetle work is sincerity. The movie is not embarrassed by its comic-book elements, but it also does not drown itself in irony. It has jokes, but it also lets emotional moments breathe. It has action, but the action is connected to the characters. It has a superhero suit, but the real strength of the movie is the family around the person wearing it.

It is honestly kind of sad that this movie arrived when DC was already falling apart, because out of the final DCEU movies, this is easily the one that deserved more love. It feels like the beginning of something rather than the end of something, which makes it even stranger that it came out during the death rattle of the old DC universe.

Still, taken on its own, Blue Beetle is a fun, heartfelt superhero origin story that I enjoyed way more than I expected.

So yeah, overall, I really enjoyed this movie.It’s just too bad.By the time this movie came out, the DCUE was dead.

Rating

8/10

Spoiler Warning

Everything past this point contains spoilers for Blue Beetle.

Spoilers

The death of Jaime’s father is easily the most emotional moment in the movie, and honestly, it works because the movie actually spends time building the Reyes family before tragedy hits. It is not just a random death thrown in for drama. You feel the loss because the family dynamic has been one of the strongest parts of the film from the beginning. His father represents stability, love, and support, so losing him gives Jaime a real emotional wound going into the final act.

That death also helps separate Jaime from the scarab’s violent instincts. One of the strongest ideas in the movie is that the scarab can create deadly weapons and push Jaime toward destruction, but Jaime chooses not to become a killer. That final confrontation with Carapax works because Jaime sees the pain and manipulation behind him. Carapax is not just a monster. He is someone who was used, broken, and turned into a weapon. Jaime refusing to kill him is a superhero moment that actually feels earned.

Carapax’s sacrifice is one of the better villain endings in the late DCEU. It is not perfect, and I still think his backstory needed more room, but the idea works. He realizes what Victoria Kord did to him, turns against her, and destroys the system that made him. That gives the ending a little more weight than a simple “hero punches villain until villain loses” climax.

The post-credit tease with Ted Kord being alive is interesting, though it is also frustrating because who knows what DC will actually do with it. In a healthier cinematic universe, that would be an exciting sequel setup. In the DCEU’s final stretch, it feels more like another loose thread floating around in a universe that was already being rebooted. Still, I liked the tease because it points toward more Blue Beetle mythology, and I would actually like to see Jaime continue.

Ultimately, Blue Beetle works because Jaime’s heroism is rooted in family, compassion, and choice. He does not become a hero because the suit makes him powerful. He becomes a hero because when the suit gives him the power to destroy someone, he chooses mercy. That is a simple idea, but it is a strong one. And after sitting through so many superhero movies that mistake scale for emotion, it was nice to watch one that remembered the heart matters more than the explosion.